Neighborhood Water Updates

UPDATE: Same Case with a different face.

On May 29, as reported in the news, Allegany County Administrator Jason Bennett announced that Maryland Water Service (MWS) has been sold to American Water Company—without any advance notice to the County. This surprise disclosure came just weeks after the Commissioners met with MWS leadership to address escalating water and sewer rates. That meeting, according to reports, raised more questions than it answered—and now, we face yet another corporate handoff of the only means of securing life-sustaining water for the communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates.

Same System, New Owner—Still Unaffordable, Still Unsustainable

Let’s be clear: this sale may change the name on our water bills, but it won’t fix the unaffordable, unaccountable system that residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates have endured for years. Our communities remain trapped in a private water arrangement that prioritizes profit over people—and history shows that American Water only makes things worse.

While the sale is still subject to closing considerations, including regulatory approval, the core issue remains: the lack of access to safe and affordable public water for the Allegany County communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates.

Same Case—A Different Face

Who Is American Water? A Track Record of Profit Over Public Good

American Water Works Company, Inc. (AWK) operates in over 20 states and has developed a reputation for aggressive rate hikes, aging infrastructure, and limited accountability:

   •    Illinois (2024): The Citizens Utility Board accused Illinois American Water of trying to overcharge customers by nearly $50 million as part of a proposed $152.4 million hike—partly to cover executive bonuses.

   •    New York (2018): New York American Water admitted to overcharging Sea Cliff residents by $281,000 due to tax errors. Affected customers received only a $65 credit.

   •    California (2023): California American Water secured approval for $50 million in additional annual revenue, despite strong public opposition.

Meanwhile, American Water’s profits have soared—from $820 million in 2022 to $944 million in 2023.

Their model is simple: shift the cost of maintaining decaying infrastructure—1 in 5 pipes are over 50 years old—onto ratepayers, while safeguarding shareholder returns.

A close examination of American Water’s track record reveals a national pattern of corporate exploitation in rural and working-class communities.

A Promise Unkept—Still Waiting

At our request, the Allegany County Commissioners committed to holding a public meeting with local, state, and federal officials: Delegates Jim Hinebaugh and Jason Buckel, Senator Mike McKay, and representatives from the offices of Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, and Congresswoman April McClain Delaney.

We publicly thanked them for that commitment.

Yet as of tomorrow, 2 months have passed.

Still no meeting.

Standing with Our Neighbors in Lonaconing and Westernport

Six weeks after the Commissioners agreed to schedule a collaborative meeting, devastating floods struck Lonaconing and Westernport. Our neighbors suffered tremendous loss. Our local, state, and federal efforts have mobilized to help them recover—and our communities have stepped up in solidarity.

Our communities have donated clothes, food, funds, and volunteer hands in service.

We Cannot Wait Any Longer

Leadership is tough . It requires executing many priorities in parallel. It requires timely and simultaneous handling of multiple responsibilities. This is leadership.

Every day without collaboration between county, state, federal leaders and citizens pushes families in our communities further into economic hardship.

The sale of MWS to American Water further compels us to make our voices heard.

We must collectively demand that the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) provide:

   •    Strict regulatory scrutiny,

   •    Public transparency and input,

   •    And rate structures at parity with the Cresaptown subdivision (for Bel Air, Pinto, and Glen Oaks) and Cumberland (for Highland Estates).

It’s time for the PSC to:

   •    Investigate the sale of MWS to American Water.

   •    Review longstanding, exploitative rate structures.

   •    Acknowledge the economic instability of a private, for-profit water company holding six communities across three non-contiguous counties in economic captivity.

In my view, the MD PSC should leverage consensus to chart a path toward public ownership—the only fair and sustainable solution.

More than 85% of Allegany County residents already receive public water. The remaining 15% relying on private water deserve the same access to affordable, transparent, and equitable service.

A Collaborative and Clear Path Forward

The communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates deserve:

   •Timely scheduling of the promised public meeting with the Allegany County Commissioners, Delegates Jim Hinebaugh and Jason Buckel, Senator Mike McKay, and representatives from the offices of Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, and Congresswoman April McClain Delaney. We appreciate the Commissioners’ commitment—but deliberation must not mean delay.

   •    PSC intervention to ensure no sale of MWS to any private entity proceeds until there is a rate structure aligned with Cresaptown for Bel Air, Pinto, and Glen Oaks, and with Cumberland for Highland Estates.

   •    A roadmap to public ownership of water infrastructure in Allegany County to guarantee safe, affordable, and sustainable water access.

This Is a Fight for All of Us—That Will Take All of Us

Community Meeting

Location: Cresaptown Volunteer Fire Department

Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Time: 5:30-6:30PM

Purpose: Updates, strategy, and next steps

We will not give up.

We are the fight—and no one can afford to sit on the sidelines.

Final Thought

Access to safe and affordable, life-sustaining water is essential for the survival of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates.

For too long, generation after generation in these communities have lived with the instability of being held in economic captivity by private, for-profit water companies.

For decades, elected officials have enabled this situation by kicking the can down the road.

As taxpaying residents and voters, we live with the devastating economic impact of private water systems—and we know: there is no more road left to kick the can down.

The sustainability of our communities can no longer be underestimated.

Our resolve cannot be underestimated.

Water is essential—not optional. Yet corporations like Maryland Water Service—and, based on a clear-eyed look at their record, American Water—have treated hardworking families as profit centers: abusing ratepayers, neglecting infrastructure, and dodging accountability.

Allegany County residents in these communities must stand united. We must be strong, and we must be heard.

COMMUNITY MEETING

Location: Cresaptown Volunteer Fire Department

Date: June 4, 2025

Time: 5:30-6:30PM

Purpose: Updates, strategy, and next steps

From Larry:

I just wanted to share with you that Nancy and I attended the Commissioners meeting Thursday evening and I briefly spoke and more specifically thanked them for the work they are doing behind the scenes coordinating a meeting of the areas affected by MWS.

Commissioners Capporale, Atkinson and Brodie have committed to making this collaboration happen. County Administrator Jason Bennett is investing time, energy and effort to help bring this collaboration together. This collective collaboration is essential to our work to secure access to safe and affordable public water. 

This is precisely why we need “The Force of Four,” Citizens, County Commissioners, State Legislative Delegation and Federal Legislative offices.

It is going to take a carefully crafted, painstakingly detailed and deliberate plan that is an integration of each of these 4 groups.  Together we can work to build a new path forward to fight for access to safe and affordable public water.

The path forward will not be easy.  The path forward will not be fast.  We can and must do this for our families, our neighbors and friends, indeed the continued viability of our communities.

Continuing momentum, continuous focus, the unrelenting building of positive collaboration is critical as we ready ourselves and build on our progress. 

What’s next?

Thing 1-

Next Steps Meetings, followed by

Thing 2-Force of Four Meeting ( Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, Highland Estates)

As the county commissioners help us build the “Force of Four,” (citizens, county commissioners, state legislators, and federal legislative offices) in the next several weeks we will begin forming the effort to prepare for and foster and fortify an even stronger coalition rooted in each and every resident who resides in the MWS communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates to attend the “Force of Four Meeting”when it is scheduled and the Next Steps Meetings.

Let there be no doubt, this will continue to be hard and this WILL TAKE EVERYONE. This is the beginning of the most difficult and most important phases of our battle to secure access to safe and affordable public water.

If you believe that our families, friends and neighbors in the MWS communities of Allegany County should have access to safe and affordable public water-we need each other to be present for each other.

Your attendance and the attendance of every member of your household need to be present at our Next Steps meetings AND the “Force of Four” meeting. This battle takes all of us.

1) We will be scheduling Concerned Citizens-Next Steps, meetings in the next few weeks. It will not be be in the Cresaptown VFD as we will need a much larger venue.

Date, Time, Location TO BE ANNOUNCED.

2.) At the Next Steps Concerned Citizens meetings to be held prior to the scheduling of the “Force of Four” meeting, we will discuss updates, GOTP (Get Out The People) strategy and advocacy.

There are many moving parts in this difficult process.

We will keep fighting and working to secure access to safe and affordable public water.

To be clear, we need EVERYONE from all MWS communities to attend our strategy, GOTP, and advocacy meetings, all to be announced in the coming weeks, as we mobilize the entirety of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates to be prepared, be present make our voices heard and collaborate with the Force of Four and work toward access to safe and affordable public water for Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter filled with peace and relaxation.

This is great news.

As the result of our collective efforts to secure safe and affordable public water for the Allegany County communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates the Allegany County Commissioners in public session agreed to honor our request to schedule and coordinate a meeting with our MWS communities and Delegate Jim Hinebaugh, Delegate Jason Buckle, and the offices of US Representative April McClain Delaney and US Senator Chris Van Hollen and US Senator Angela Alsobrooks and State Senator Mike McKay.

We have stood together and been tough together supported by each other-our families, friends and neighbors.

I have maintained that this will not be easy and it hasn’t been!

“The Force of Four”

Our hard work has brought us here, to a forthcoming meeting to collaborate with the “Force of Four”

1) The residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates, the MWS communities served by the Maryland Water Service.

2) The Allegany County Commissioners Dave Caporale, William Atkinson, and Creade Brodie

3) MD Delegate Jim Hinebaugh, MD Delegate Jason Buckel, and Senator Mike McKay.

4) The offices of US Representative April McClain Delaney, US

Senator Chris Van Hollen and the US Senator Angela Alsobrooks.

We applaud and extend our gratitude to the Allegany County Commissioners for their prompt discussion of and their agreement to honor and commit to the terms of our request in our correspondence during Thursday evening’s session of the Allegany County Commissioners. We look forward to hearing from them as to the date and time our meeting will be held at the Allegany County Multi Purpose Center at the county fairgrounds.

To reiterate, the work will continue to be hard.

The Next Phase

During the next few days and weeks we will begin the mobilization phase of our battle and create a unified synergistic strategy that will enable our “Force of Four”to collaborate and chart a new path to safe, affordable public water for the families Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates.

Every step we take in our present struggle is a victory in itself. We will not quit.

The climb is long.

The climb is steep.

We will not quit.

Safe and affordable public water for our families, friends and neighbors is just beyond this, the forthcoming, longest and most difficult phases of our battle.

We will not be broken.

We will not be distracted.

The work is just beginning.

We must and will continue to be unrelenting in our fight.

Let there be no doubt. Though the road is long our resolve is certain.

We will execute the next phases of our battle with positive resolve with calm, calculation and precision-we will be focused, deliberate and unrelenting.

We will get this done.

From Larry:

Thank you to all the people from Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates who came out to meet with members of the media and shared their real life experiences and concerns with the Maryland Water Service of Sugar Land, Texas.

On Monday, the Concerned Citizens submitted our letter to the Allegany County Commissioners supported by over 1,200 signatures from the Allegany County MWS communities. We will keep you updated.

Prior to the last absurd rate request by the MD Water Service, of Sugar Land, Texas, the MD PSC and OPC held remote hearings. Due to our efforts, the MD PSC held regional hearings. The tremendous turnout at the July 2024 hearing of CASE 9729 was reflective of the momentum that has helped us, with the Herculean efforts of Nancy Smith, Hannah Smith, Jenn Jeudy, Bob Border, Vikki Crowe Border, Bill McElvie, Karl Doerk, Amanda Pandey, Donna Goldizen, Bob & Sharon Rowan, Deb Prater-Savage, Gail Holler, Karen Yoder Morgan, Brad & Kara Anderson, Sarecia Renee Powers, Grant Van Wyngaarden, Sue Dudley, Nancy Boggs, Cathy Lonigro, Haleigh Cheyanne, Joyce Lechliter, Holly Simpson, Adrianne Moffett Minard, Cindy Schartiger, Chuck & Linda Spangler Eberly, Joe & Carol Bonnella, Mark and Cindy Smith, Chris Offutt, David Aydelotte Jr, Mike & Jenni Bratton and so many others.

At that time, some said there is nothing we can do. For our families, our friends and neighbors-we refused to believe that, rather we chose to believe in the power of each other and ourselves.

We refused to believe in complaining in the sidelines and supported by negative pessimistic complacency.

We chose a positive path forward to chart a new path forward to secure access to safe and affordable public water that allows dignity, stability and security for the monthly budgets of our residents, secures water people are not afraid to drink, secures water that people are not afraid they cannot afford, and protects the value of our property and the long term viability of our communities.

We took to the streets armed with a petition and a pen. We chose to change our reality. We knew it would be hard. It has been. It is. It will continue to be hard. But we know that sometimes we must do hard things for our families and each other.

We have more reason to be hopeful than we did in last July. I have faith in you and our communities. I am honored to stand with you.

Our resolve marches on. Our fight goes on. Our work goes on.

WCBC Press Conference Coverage 

This is a fight for all of us.

Month after month the Maryland Water Service of Sugar Land, Texas holds the families of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates in economic captivity. Many of our friends and neighbors daily are forced to choose between buying medicine and food and life sustaining water. 

This is a fight for all of us.

Collectively, these communities, our communities, have chosen to work together to positively chart a path forward. We have recognized that the status quo is unattainable. The Allegany County MWS areas are forced to pay thousands of dollars a year while 85% of our fellow citizens pay hundreds of dollars invested by water rates paid to public governments. Ours are sent to North Carolina and paid to a private, for profit company Nexus Water in Texas. Its sole function is simple. It makes profit. It takes profit. It takes excessive profit. It takes excessive profit from our families for water that we need to live.

This is a fight for all of us.

We have fought for fairness and justice for our communities. We have made our struggle against injustice and unfairness known to the Maryland Water Service of Sugar Land, Texas. We have made our struggle against injustice and unfairness known by the Maryland Public Service Commission.

This is a fight for all of us.

We have walked together and stand together and have chosen a new path forward. We have chosen to fight for our families and those of our friends and neighbors to secure access to safe and affordable public water.

This is a fight for all of us.

On Monday March 31, 2025 at 5:30 PM at the Cresaptown VFD we can share our experience of the Maryland Water Service of Sugar Land, Texas.

This is a fight for all of us.

Bring your bills, as many as you can. Bring your stories and lived experiences of being forced to have the wellbeing of your family held in the untenable grip of the Maryland Water Service of Sugar Land, Texas. This is a fight for all of us.

This is a fight for all of us.

All of us must be in this fight.

Yes, you can bring homemade signs and posters.

Yes, you can be heard.

Yes, all of us must be heard.

Monday March 31, 2025 at 5:30 PM at the Cresaptown VFD.

The fight for all of us. The fight for all of us has begun.

No one can sit on the sidelines. Your family and your friends and neighbors need all of us to be part of the fight.

This is a fight for all of us.

Monday March 31, 2025 at 5:30 PM at the Cresaptown VFD.

Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the Concerned Citizens of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates meeting this evening at the Cresaptown VFD.

Meeting Take-Aways

1. We will be submitting the letter from the MWS Communities  to the Allegany County Commissioners tomorrow.

2. Copies will be sent to our state and federal legislators.

3. If you have any revisions for the letter please email

concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

4. ON MONDAY, MARCH 31st AT 5:30 PM AT THE CRESAPTOWN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT WE WILL BE HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE AND NEED EVERYONE TO ATTEND.

BRING COPIES OF YOUR WATER AND SEWER BILL

BRING YOUR PERSONAL STORY ABOUT CHALLENGES OF EXCESSIVELY HIGH WATER AND SEWER COSTS.

COSTS THAT ARE UNSUSTAINABLE

DEVALUATION OF PROPERTY VALUES

FAMILIES BEING FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN LIFE  SUSTAINING WATER AND FOOD, HEALTH CARE AND OTHER BASIC NECESSITIES.

FAMILIES TERRIFIED TO FLUSH THEIR TOILET, SHOWER, AND WASH DISHES AND LAUNDRY

WE NEED TO ALL BE PRESENT WITH OUR WATER BILLS AND OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE MD WATER SERVICE, OF SUGAR LAND, TEXAS.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD OF THIS PRESS CONFERENCE AND BRING YOURSELVES, YOUR NEIGHBORS AND YOUR BILLS.

NOT ONE OF US CAN SIT ON THE SIDELINES. WE MUST STAND TOGETHER AND BE HEARD.

The monthly assault by the Maryland Water Service on the financial resources of our families and friends continues. While the Maryland Water Service has continued its assault we have refused to sit in silence. We have chosen to fight for a different path for the future of the residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

This battle to secure a better path forward for ourselves and each other has not been easy. We have crossed the Rubicon in this battle and have secured 1,245 signatures for our petition-exceeding our target of 1,200 signatures from all MD Water Service areas in Allegany County.

Now we will engage next steps to move closer to our goal of securing Access to Safe, Affordable Public Water for our MWS communities.

The work continues. We will, with intense focus press forward.

In pressing forward with next steps, the Concerned Citizens of the MWS will have a MEETING this THURSDAY, MARCH 27, at 6:00 PM at the Cresaptown Volunteer Fire Department at 13109 Warrior Drive, Cresaptown.

At this time, we will present our next steps as we press forward in the work that remains in front of us.

Petition Update

Great News! We have 97% of our goal!!

We have a total of 1,161 signatures and are only 39 signatures away from our goal of 1,200 signatures.

This evening we met with District 1 Senator Mike McKay. He expressed his agreement and support for our proposal. He joined us for the entire time at our petition signing station today at Bel Air. THANK YOU SENATOR MCKAY.

Through our efforts, we are building the bridges and partnerships to make change and secure access to safe, affordable public water.

When we reach our goal we will be holding a Concerned Citizens Committee in the near future.

Please DO NOT CONFUSE OUR EFFORTS WITH ANY ONLINE PETITION.

WE ARE NOT ASSOCIATED IN ANY WAY WITH ANY OTHER PETITION WITH THE CONCERNED CITIZENS COMMITTEE.

We have been honored to visit with neighbors and families across the Maryland Water Service (MWS) areas of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.  Many of our neighbors have a digital divide and lack access to digital platforms.

To be clear, our petition is a compilation of signatures from individuals who actually reside in the Maryland Water Service Areas of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

It presents with great specificity the longitudinal effects of MWS catastrophic rate constructs imposed on the MWS communities in Allegany County.

WE DO NOT REQUEST IN OUR PETITION TAKING OVER CUMBERLAND’S WATER SUPPLY. Any request to do so IS NOT in our interests.

To reiterate, the Concerned Citizens Petition, is an integrated effort by many citizens who have obtained actual signatures of people who have legal standing as residents who actually reside in the MWS Service Areas of Allegany County.

We are focused. We are committed. We are united. We are not distracted.

Our fight is the fight to secure ACCESS TO SAFE, AFFORDABLE PUBLIC WATER.

Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, Highland Estates, we are together fighting for this outcome and will not stop fighting until it becomes a reality.

Stay posted on upcoming announcement of our next meeting of the Concerned Citizens Committee.  Coming Soon.

Concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

Since we have begun our journey we have perpetually made it clear that the battle we have undertaken, to bring access  to safe, affordable, public water will not be easy.

We have made it clear that building and sustaining momentum will be difficult.

We have made it clear that we must be in this fight together for the mutual interests, benefit and wellbeing of our families, friends and neighbors.

We have made it clear that we will not abandon our fight to end the Maryland Water Service monthly raid of our wallets and bank accounts.

Nancy and I have had the privilege of visiting with many of our neighbors, sitting with folks at kitchen tables and in living rooms, on porches and foyers. In the petition signing stations in the wind, heat and cold, we stand together.

I am saddened, sickened and outraged at the countless stories we have heard from people across the Maryland Water Service Areas of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

We have neighbors among us who are forced to live in fear of simply getting a drink of water, flushing the toilet, washing the dishes or laundry.

People among us live in fear every month to open the bill for life sustaining water, courtesy of the Maryland Water Service. For many, this monthly fear is rooted in worry about being forced to make choosing whether or not to purchase insulin, heart medication, or food.

Indeed, all of us have reason to worry about the prospect of declining property values and the certainty of future Maryland Water Service rate increases inflicted upon our families.

We are fighting for ACCESS TO SAFE, AFFORDABLE PUBLIC WATER. We are just 150 signatures away from our goal of 1,200.

We cannot quit. To be sure, that is precisely what the MWS has counted on. Our silence.

We will not stop until the status quo loses.

We will not stop until every one of our families in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates has access to SAFE, AFFORDABLE, PUBLIC WATER, just as 85% of our fellow Allegany Countians enjoy.

If you or anyone residing in the Maryland Water Service Areas of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks or Highland Estates have not yet signed the petition-WE WILL BE HOLDING A PETITION SIGNING STATION ON SATURDAY-MARCH 1 from 2-4 PM AT THE BEL AIR CITIZENS COMMITTEE MEETING ROOM LOCATED AT THE BEL AIR PAVILIONS.

Please spread the word far and wide to bring out anyone and everyone who resides in THE MARYLAND WATER SERVICE AREAS OF BEL AIR, PINTO, GLEN OAKS AND HIGHLAND ESTATES TO COME AND GET US TO OUR GOAL OF 1,200 SIGNATURES.

When we hit our target of 1,200 signatures, we will have a concerned citizens meeting to discuss next steps.

There can be none among us who sit on the sideline of this battle.

We must stand together in the mutual interests of our families and our neighbors.

The MWS has been encouraged by years of silence, acceptance and apathy. We will be silent no more until we secure ACCESS TO SAFE AFFORDABLE PUBLIC WATER, as 85% of Allegany County currently enjoys.

If you have not yet written your elected officials from the Allegany County Commissioners to members of the state legislative delegation to the Maryland Public Service Commission to Governor Moore please do so.  Thanks to Deb Prater-Savage for reiterating this important piece for the petition to be secured in tandem with lobbying efforts.

Thank you to Ronda Dickel Muir for  your advocacy with the Office of Maryland Attorney General.

In sum,

1) Our community is committed to ensuring that the MWS service areas of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates secure access to SAFE, AFFORDABLE PUBLIC WATER.

2) Bring our community to the goal of 1,200 signatures from the MWS Service Areas and come to our petition signing station on Saturday March 1 from 2-4 at the Bel Air Citizens Committee meeting room at the Bel Air pavilion behind Bel Air Elementary School.

3) Bombard state, local and  elected officials and the MD PSC to express the economic effects of the MWS unsustainable water rates that are the highest water rates in the nation.

4) Keep posted to the Bel Air Facebook site for more updates about our goal of 1,200 signatures AND our next steps.

5) Please remember to make a video recording of any water quality issue such as cloudy water using a clear glass with the location, time and date.

6) Remember to make a video recording of any MWS activity (such as MWS contractor last summer allowing clay to run in storm drains after flushing hydrants in the midst of one of the worst water droughts in the history of the north east and resulting water breaks) including location date and time.

7) Remember to lodge any complaint about water quality within the MWS AND the MD Department of the Environment, AND follow up with the MD Public Service Commission AND keep a record of the names of the people you communicated with. ASK FOR A WRITTEN RESPONSE.

Don’t forget to sign for your children as well. All members of the household that use Maryland Water Service can sign the petition!

PETITION SIGNING ON SATURDAY, MARCH 1st from 2:00-4:00 at the Bel Air Pavilions. If you have signature pages, please bring them by. Thank you for everyone’s help!

Thank you to everyone who came out to sign the petition, we are just 191 signatures shy of our target of 1,200.

So many residents are forced to pay the Maryland Water Service more for a monthly water bill from the Maryland Water Service than they pay for their mortgage payment. Some of our fellow residents are in fear of washing their dishes, flushing their toilet more than once a day, and washing their clothes. We cannot be silent as our families and those of our neighbors experience the economic impact and detrimental effects of water and sewage rates imposed upon us by the Maryland Water Service. Please continue to spread to all your friends and neighbors in the Maryland Water Service communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates to come and sign the petition to help us secure access to safe, affordable public water.

We will be having another petition signing on Wednesday, February 5 from 4:00-6:00 at the Bel Air Community Room at the Bel Air pavilion above the baseball field

All Maryland Water Service customers in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates who have NOT signed the petition to help us fight to secure access to safe, affordable public water.

Please come and sign the petition.

Where: Bel Air Community Room attached to the Bel Air Pavilion.

When: Wednesday, January 29 4:00-6:00 PM

We need around 300 signatures to reach our target of 1,200 signatures.

Additional Information:

We will be scheduling a Concerned Citizens-Maryland Water Service meeting for late February at a date, time and location to be announced here soon.

1) At this meeting we will discuss next strategy, goals and objectives, next steps to meet with and community presentation of our petition.

2) The Maryland Water Service is imposing rates on our families that threaten our economic stability. Many of our fellow neighbors are paying monthly water bills that exceed their monthly mortgage payment.  More, many are being forced to make monthly choices between purchasing food, medication, and paying for water. Our families are being denied the same access to safe, affordable public water that 85% of our fellow Allegany County citizens receive. The cost of our silence will be an erosion of the economic viability of our communities including a catastrophic devaluation of the fair market value of our homes. We must stand together, united in our resolve to secure SAFE, AFFORDABLE ACCESS TO PUBLIC WATER for ourselves and our neighbors. Not one of us can sit on the sidelines.

Thank you to everyone we met with for signatures the last few days.

Please spread the word to the residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates who have members of their household who have not yet signed the petition to join our efforts and come to this important petition signing station-Wednesday January 29, 4:00-6:00 PM, at the Bel Air Community Room at the Bel Air Pavilion above the ball field.

UPDATE: We just counted new signatures and we are at 939! Please, please come out tomorrow so we reach our goal of 1,200!

From Larry and Nancy:

We are getting closer to the target of at least 1,200 signatures for our petition to secure safe, affordable, public water. The final petition signatures will hopefully be secured Tuesday afternoon.

This fight takes every resident of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, Highland Estates from all ages.

Many of us and our fellow citizens are beginning to experience the next wave of pillage of our hard earned dollars at the hands of the Maryland Water Service. We must continue to press forward and secure the signature of every resident of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

When we compile the target of 1,200 signatures established at our last concerned citizens meeting, we will have a meeting to discuss our presentation to the Allegany County Commissioners.

No one among us can be silent as our water rates continue to erode monthly incomes. No one among us can be silent as the Maryland Water Service further erode our property values. No one among us can be silent while the exponential and cumulative effects of unsustainable rate increases for the necessity of life sustaining water is destroying the economic fabric of our communities.

Oh no? Consider this.

Given the rate pace increase, many will see their monthly water bill more than double in the next decade. Next year the MD Water Service is on track to submit yet another rate increase application. Our silence will be costly and ALL of our voices must be heard.

Important Next Steps-

1) If you and all of the residents of your household have not signed the petition yet, please do so. Contact me and we will get a petition to you.

2) Ask all of your neighbors if they have signed the petition. If they haven’t contact us and we  will bring a petition to you.

3) If you have outstanding petitions, please make an effort to secure any additional signatures you can in your neighborhood. Please contact us and we will make arrangements to secure any outstanding petitions.

4) We will have a concerned citizen’s meeting in February at a date to be forthcoming and posted here. Please stay tuned and be there if your schedule permits.

5) Although we have held 2 signing stations in Glen Oaks, we are coming up woefully short on our neighbors in this community.

Please contact us and we will bring petitions to your community.

6) We are working to secure a viable venue to hold a petition signing station indoors and will post here sometime this week a date, time and location of an indoor petition signing station. 

We pay among the highest water rates in the entire nation. Our fellow Allegany County citizens in nearby neighboring communities who have access to safe, affordable public water pay a mere fraction of what our residents pay for the same water from the same source.

We are thankful for the efforts of all those who have helped in our fight to secure access to safe, affordable public water for the residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates. We are in this fight together.

The meeting of the Concerned Citizens of the Maryland Water Service had a positive and productive session thanks to a dedicated cadre of team members at our meeting last Thursday.

We agreed that our target number of signatures we need from Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates is 1,200.

WOW!!!!!! Thanks to the efforts of our team we are at 745 signatures. We are going to be holding petition signing stations in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates. If there is anyone who can help us with one of these locations, please let us know.

On Friday September 20, we will post the details of petition signing stations including locations, dates and times. We are on mile 20 of a marathon. There is no option for us. We can and will finish this marathon.

Someone recently shared with us some longitudinal data regarding the Maryland Water Service. Facts are stubborn things. What the MD Water Service has done, is doing, and will continue to do to every resident it has in its grip is not sustainable. For our families, friends and neighbors we must continue to stand up and work together to secure safe, affordable public water like 85% of our fellow Allegany County residents enjoy.

Let’s keep up the momentum. Let’s move forward. We can no longer give up and give in to the MWS.

Momentum. It is one of the most important and valuable catalysts of our collective work to bring safe, affordable public water to our Maryland Water Service afflicted communities. Thanks to the work of a team of many we have been able to create momentum.

Momentum. It’s the stuff needed to build the force to bring change. It is for us, the force we need to keep strong. It is the force that we need to fuel with persistence and perseverance. Our momentum, as we are witnessing, is built upon our collective strength and is growing awareness and support of our effort to bring, safe, affordable public water to our communities and allow our fellow neighbors and families to no longer live in fear of being able to afford life sustaining water.

Momentum. Tomorrow 4:30-6:30 our momentum to this goal will be brought to our friends at Glen Oaks.

Please spread the word that tomorrow we will be having a petition signing station in the parking lot of Dorman CPA and Business Consultants. THANK YOU to my friend Eric Dorman for his support of our effort to bring safe, affordable public water to our communities.

Momentum. We have it. Many have built it on our journey. It will take all of us to sustain it. We are moving forward to end the fear of many of our neighbors and families who live in fear of being able to afford water. We are fighting for the dignity of every single person in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

GLEN OAKS PETITION SIGNING STATION at Dorman CPA parking lot at 15411 McMullen Hwy. Tomorrow-Thursday August 29, 2024 4:30-6:30

we will continue our momentum at Glen Oaks.

Momentum. Nancy and I are proud to stand with you.

From Larry:

We have great momentum unfolding from the hardworking people of our communities who refuse to be silent as we continue to face monthly water and sewer bills that threaten the quality of life for our residents. It is because of the efforts and support of hundreds of residents in the Bel Air, Pinto, Highland Estates, and Glen Oaks that we are propose a solution rooted in an understanding of the of the need for our residents to have access to safe and affordable water just like virtually every other resident in Allegany County, except our communities who are forced to buy life sustaining water from the Maryland Water Service.

Again, the efforts of hundreds of people in our communities have taken the message to our neighborhoods. It is imperative that we communicate in facts. Our collective petition efforts are leading a united force from the front, in a positive collaborative way. This is how sound public policy happens that proposes solutions that mobilize county, state and federal partnerships. It is the positive energy of the citizens in the communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates who not only refuse to be silent but also refuse to sit on the sidelines. Thanks to your efforts we are moving forward. We will keep moving forward thanks to the dedication of ordinary people supporting each other and standing together and providing positive actions to build the partnerships we need to provide safe, affordable, public water to all our citizens. This is our singular focus. It is built upon facts, it is a process built upon sound advocacy and working together to build the essential partnerships needed for our communities to have relief and thrive into the future. Our community efforts to bring an end to families who worry about their children taking showers, running the dishwasher, or washing their clothes. It is inhumane to impose upon our residents a costs for water that puts forth such fear that some feel compelled to take their laundry to a laundromat, feel they need to use plastic and paper utensils, and face sleepless nights in fear to open up the bill for the most basic of human needs. We know that our communities of the Maryland Water Service cannot endure what is happening to our families, friends and neighbors. Together we are progressing forward and will take the solid message of our unified communities to the Allegany County Commissioners with a clear focus and propose a roadmap for relief. It is our neighbors like Mark Schartiger and Grant van Wyngaarden who explained to thousands of our fellow residents every Allegany County community on WCBC our realities. It is the countless neighbors  who are visiting our fellow residents and building support for our petition. We know doing nothing is no longer an option.

We will only get this done if we stand up for ourselves and each other. We will get this done. We are going to continue to move forward. I am honored to stand with you.

Today, August 14th-Petition Signing at the Bel Air Pavilion by the ball field from 4:30-6:30.

Coming soon a Petition Signing Station in Highland Estates.

“Never be so busy as to not think of others.” Mother Teresa

Petition to the Allegany County

Commissioners of Allegany County, Maryland From the Residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates

Whereas we the people who reside in the Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates communities are residents of Allegany County, Maryland, and

Whereas we the people who reside in the Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates communities are residents who live, work, worship and contribute to the social, economic, and cultural life of the entirety of Allegany County, Maryland, and

Whereas we the people who reside in the Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates communities are comprised of individuals and families who are connected to every other fellow citizen of Allegany County, Maryland, in every community therein, by virtue of being a citizen of the same, and

Whereas we the people who reside in the Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates communities of Allegany County, Maryland contribute to the betterment, improvement, and well-being of the entirety of Allegany County, Maryland through investment of our taxes, assessed through the value of our property, further supported our individual and collective apportionment of state and federal income taxes, state sales taxes and expenditure of our earned income resources that are reinvested into promoting the common good through county, state, and federal investment including infrastructure, the public pre-k through post-secondary education corridor, public health, public safety and security, and economic development, and

Whereas we the people who reside in the Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates communities of Allegany County, Maryland singularly comprise the entirety of the population who are forced and compelled, with the absence of either choice or consent, to purchase life sustaining waterfrom the Maryland Water Service, a holding of Nexus Utilities, and

Whereas water is essential to sustaining life and the wellness of the human condition, and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates have been repeatedly assailed with increases in rates to secure life-sustaining water, that have become longitudinally and cumulatively economically unsustainable, and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates are residents of Allegany County, Maryland are singularly, among al communities in Allegany County, Maryland, forced and compelled to pay among the highest rates in the entirety of the United States of America, for life sustaining water from the Maryland Water Service, and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates, assailed and afflicted by the cumulative and longitudinal exponential increases of unsustainable water rates inflicted upon us, are now confronted with the inherent and irrefutably detrimental and adverse effects of these unsustainable water rates that threaten the value of our homes, and the capacity of individuals and families to continue to reside in these communities within Allegany County, Maryland, and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates assailed by the unsustainability of water rates imposed upon us by the Maryland Water Service, a holding of Nexus Utilities, assert that these irrefutably adverse effects threaten the economic viability of our community and, indeed, the entirety of Allegany County, Maryland by the inevitable resultant rippling negative economic effects of these economically unsustainable rate increases singularly imposed on our community, and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates resolve and submit that the economic unsustainability of water rates threaten the present and future economic viability and survivability of our community as a mutual contributor to and benefactor of the collective interests of our community and the entirety of Allegany County, Maryland and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates have been repeatedly assailed by economically unsustainable rate increases imposed upon us by the Maryland Water Service that force and compel its citizens to pay rates for water necessary to sustain our lives and viability that manifestly exceed, by several times, any rate for the same essential water and sewage services in any other community in Allegany County, Maryland and

Whereas we the people who reside in Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates are held in unsustainable economic captivity by the Maryland Water Service, a holding of Nexus Utilities, Sugar Land TX, that, has undertaken efforts that will further economically incapacitate the citizens of the Allegany County, Maryland communities of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates, by its undertakings to exponentially increase and consolidate water rates and tariffs that are inefficiently scattered across its non-contiguous service areas in Allegany County, Maryland, Harford County, Maryland, and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and

Whereas, we the undersigned, residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates seek, request, and expect you, the Allegany County Commissioners, as our duly elected representatives, to provide the necessary resolve, leadership, action, diligence, tireless collaboration and cooperation with the Office of Maryland Governor and necessary Maryland Executive Departments, and agencies, including the Maryland Board of Public Works, the Maryland Attorney General, members of the Maryland General Assembly, the US House of Representatives, and the US Senate to secure and provide for the economic relief we firmly seek from you, through this petition, that is, the provision of public owned water and sewage utility services, to our communities, as communities in Allegany County, Maryland and

Therefore, we the undersigned, the residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates, respectfully and with our fullest sense of urgency, submit to you, the Commissioners of Allegany County, Maryland, as our duly elected representatives, this petition, for your immediate action, to secure our mutual economic security by, your relentless determination, and through authority granted to you on behalf of the residents of Allegany County, Maryland, to seek through eminent domain, the taking, of the entirety of water utility and sewage operations of the Maryland Water Service, through the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, the due process of law including the provision of just compensation and through exercise fo your authority to expropriate private property for public use.

Concerned Citizens of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates

concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

UPDATES

We had a tremendous turnout for petition distribution Tuesday between 4:00-6:30 If there is anyone who did not obtain a petition and wanted one to take around to residents in area, street, cul-de-sac, or road, please e-mail concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com and we will make sure you receive one.

We still have a few areas that need petition coverage, please, if you can help, please e-mail me at concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

The in tandem media action packet will be posted by Wednesday.

We are in need of 10-20 people who can serve as a Media Action Team. This will be an organized, coordinated and targeted event that members of the team will call in to WCBC's Dave Norman Show to voice our concerns. We now need to begin delivering broad spectrum messaging throughout all citizens in Allegany County. Many are unaware of what we endure from the Maryland Water Service. We are going to take the message to them. If you can join this Media Action Team, please e-mail me at: concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

The Community Action Toolbox, which will help provide tools to contact elected officials will be posted here Monday.

As we discussed in our meeting on August 5, 2024 at the Cresaptown Volunteer Fire Hall, my letter to Judge Ryan McLean regarding the Maryland Water Service failure to respond to my request for documentation is posted here.

I will be sending written communication to the Allegany County Director of Public Works, Adam Patterson regarding the unacceptable condition that the Maryland Water Service left some of our county roads as the apparent result of hydrant flushes performed this past weekend. See attached photos. This letter will be posted next week. If you want to be part of an Agency Contact Team and join me in signing my letter please e-mail me at: concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

We are in need of a Media Action Team consisting of 4-5 individuals to join me and write letters to the Maryland Department of the Environment to express our concerns with the clay deposits that the Maryland Water Service allowed to navigate along irrigation terrain into our sewage system as the result of the water bursts subsequent to the hydrant flushing this past weekend. See attached photos/video. Clay sits in pipes and will eventually block them and it can lead to pooling and poor drainage . Our letter will inform the MD Dept of the Environment of these very serious concerns and ask them to insure that the MWS is aware of the potential hazards of failing to take reasonable steps to mitigate potential hazards of clay in the water system. If you can help me and be part of this Media Action Team, please contact me at: concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

This Saturday August 10, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Nancy, Hannah and I will have a Petition Signing Station in the parking lot of Health Matters Urgent Care. This is an excellent opportunity for residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks, and Highland Estates to come and sign the petition. This battle requires ALL of us to make our voices be heard that we need quality, affordable, public water. Thank you Dr. Ronna Mathias Monseau.

Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates customers we need volunteers from your communities to help us end our association with the MD Water Service and bring safe, quality, affordable public water to ALL of us. Please contact me at: concernedcitizensbelair@gmail.com

The two most important words we have are thank you. Thank you for joining our battle to end the insanity of access to our most basic life need, water. While we have just started our journey, the fact is we have started it. And we know what we seek at the end of our journey of advocacy for ourselves and our neighbors. I am honored to stand with you.

Check out the picture of Eric Miller, our first signature on our petition effort to bring safe, quality, affordable, public water to ALL of us. WE can't win if we don't begin. Indeed, WE have begun.

Our next petition follow-up meeting will be in about two weeks. Details to follow soon.

Hi everyone, a message from Larry!

Thank you to everyone who attended our Concerned Residents of Bel Air, Pinto, Glen Oaks and Highland Estates.

We agreed our solitary focus will be to advocate for and secure public water from the Allegany County government utility operations.

We agreed that we need to proceed to secure signatures from each of the above affected service communities.

We will be distributing petitions tomorrow, Tuesday, August 6 from 4:00 until 6:30 at the Bel Air pavilion. We will also be coordinating areas for obtaining signatures with volunteers to ensure we give every resident of our communities an opportunity to make sure their voice, and our collective voices are heard. This coordination will also preclude redundancy of our efforts.

We will also be working together and offer signing stations for people to sign the petition.

A Frequently Asked Questions page will accompany each petition to help residents understand our efforts; what we are trying to accomplish, how we will do it, and what it aspires for each and every resident of our community.

Tomorrow a contact packet for contacting and communicating with county, state and federal officials and agencies.

Tomorrow there will also be a media communication packet for our efforts to effectively utilize social media, local digital and print media, local and regional broadcast media outlets.

We are determined to secure relief for ourselves and our neighbors.  Also look for a communication bulletin for propelling support from relatives and friends in areas outside the MD Water Service areas in Allegany County.

Again, I am thankful for your inspiring collective efforts to begin and win our battle to secure public water utility access for our communities.

Larry

As an aside, a few people inquired if I will be attending the Allegany County Commissioners meeting on Thursday August 8. I will not be attending for 2 reasons. First, I am attending an event at the Kennedy Center with my wife. Second, I will not be attending because, speaking only for myself, the time is not ripe for delivering a laser focused results driven message. Again, speaking only for myself, the time will be ripe . . .soon.  Reiteratively, I am a fierce advocate for our 1st Amendment guarantees. From my view, it is far more judicious to build a barn with a focused plan than blow one down and leave empty handed. To be sure, everyone who wants to exercise their 1st Amendment rights, I support. For me, the time is not ripe . . . but it will be soon.

In March of this year Dr. Larry Smith had a phone conference with Brock L. Miller, with the MD OPC, in advance of the pre hearing regarding 9729. He requested that the OPC seek in-person hearings, in particular to support the affected communities of Western Maryland.  As the result of this request, Counsel Miller sought through pre hearing deliberations the regional meetings for the MWS rate application increase. A huge turnout is needed as reflected in a large physical presence of citizens who will show the opposition to this unreasonable rate increase of the entire community. It is imperative that every citizen of every age affected by the MWS increase be present. Please be present and please allow your voice and our united voice to be heard. Some people have a real fear of speaking in public, you can and should let your voice be heard. You can be present and offer written comments for the record, submit comments in writing to Judge Ryan C. “Chuck” McLean. You can write your comments down, read them and be heard. You can speak extemporaneously from your mind and gut. It is critically important that each of us offer opposition that will be heard. I love Bel Air because it is a community of neighbors. It is the neighborhood community. The short and long-term effects of this rate increase will be detrimental to our community.